Hospitals, nursing homes, and other patient care facilities typically include patient monitoring devices at one or more bedsides in the facility. Patient monitoring devices generally include sensors, processing equipment, and displays for obtaining and analyzing a medical patient's physiological parameters. Physiological parameters include, for example, respiratory rate, oxygen saturation (SpO2) level, pulse, and blood pressure, among others. Clinicians, including doctors, nurses, and certain other medical personnel, use the physiological parameters obtained from the medical patient to diagnose illnesses and to prescribe treatments. Clinicians also use the physiological parameters to monitor a patient during various clinical situations to determine whether to increase the level of medical care given to the patient.
Many monitoring devices receive physiological signals from one or more sensors, such as pulse oximetry sensors, other types of optical sensors, acoustic sensors, and the like. Medical cables attached to the sensors transmit signals from the sensors to the monitoring device.
Physiological signals in some monitoring systems can be relatively small or otherwise difficult to measure with a high degree of accuracy. As such, manufacturing tolerances for the various components in the system may be relatively tight, possibly leading to low yields, increased manufacturing cost and/or reduced flexibility in component design.
Additionally, sensors, cables and other components in the sensor path may be sold with a specific monitoring device and are factory calibrated for use with only that monitoring device, reducing flexibility in component selection. Alternatively, some systems may be manually calibrated in the field, increasing cost and setup time. Accordingly, there remains a need for a monitoring system capable of providing accurate physiological measurement while addressing these and other issues.